AAI in Hunt Valley lays off 184 workers

Move part of company's efforts to be more 'cost competitive'

AAI Corp., the Hunt Valley company known for its Shadow spy plane, said Tuesday that it is laying off 184 workers from its Baltimore County location.

Workers were to be notified Tuesday. Before the layoffs, AAI employed more than 1,600 workers in Maryland.

Meanwhile, Maryland's unemployment rate fell in December to 6.7 percent, the lowest since February 2009, the U.S. Labor Department reported Tuesday. The state added 3,100 jobs last month.

Sharon Corona, AAI's director of external communications, said the job cuts affect workers at all levels and that those positions were being eliminated so that the company can be as "cost competitive as we can possibly be."

The move comes as the defense contracting dollars from the federal government are expected to dwindle. The overall national defense budget rose only slightly this fiscal year, and military leaders say they're taking a hard look at contracts for cost savings.

Corona said the Department of Defense is asking contractors to be "cost competitive" and "we're taking a look like everyone else."